Facebook

What is Facebook?

Developed in 2004 by then Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook is a social networking site used by more than 800 million active users in every country on the planet, so far in 70 languages. The site’s minimum age is 13, but teens represent only a minority population on Facebook. It’s used by a lot of adults, certainly including parents. But not just individuals – Facebook’s also used by businesses, organizations and governments all over the world, to send marketing messages, seek charitable funding and communicate with customers and constituents.

Facebook is certainly not the only social networking site. There are thousands of them, based all over the world, some general-interest social sites for people in a specific country and some for specific interest groups in many categories – students, sports fans, film aficionados, cooks, travelers, gamers, music lovers, etc. Some social sites are designed for use on computers, some just for mobile
phones. Facebook is accessed by both.

What do people do on Facebook?

They chat, share photos (more than 250 million new ones each day!), postnvideos, stay in touch and share personal news, play games, plan meetings and get-togethers, send birthday and holiday wishes, do homework and business together, find and contact long-lost friends and relatives, review books and
recommend restaurants, support charitable causes....

In fact, there’s very little people can’t do on Facebook. It’s sometimes called a “social utility.” Like a power grid, it provides the supporting infrastructure for the constantly changing everyday activities of hundreds of millions of users, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The amount of activity on Facebook is almost inconceivable. Every month, users add 30 billion pieces of content (comments, photos, Web links, blog posts, videos, etc.) to Facebook.

In effect, the “product” of Facebook is a living thing that changes constantly. Unlike the media we parents grew up with – books, newspapers, and even radio and television – it’s “user-driven,” the collective product of its millions of users’ lives (not just their social lives), updated spontaneously, moment-by-moment around the world. It’s a large swath of the wired and wireless social Web that increasingly mirrors all of human life.

Why do young people use Facebook?

For as many reasons as adults do. The research of psychologists and sociologists shows us that they use social networking sites for:

● Socializing or “hanging out” with their friends, for the most part friends at
school

● Day-to-day news about their friends, acquaintances, relatives, and peer groups

● Collaborating on school work

● Validation or emotional support

● Self-expression and the identity exploration and formation that occurs in adolescent development

● What sociologists call “informal learning,” or learning outside of formal settings such as school, including learning social norms and social literacy

● Learning the technical skills of the digital age, which many businesspeople feel are essential to professional development

● Discovering and exploring interests, both academic and future professional interests

● Learning about the world beyond their immediate home and school environments

● Civic engagement – participating in causes that are meaningful to them.